You may have noticed that it’s been a while since my latest blog post. No, I’m not neglecting my blog (at least not on purpose) I’ve just been SUPER busy! And not just busy with the same old same old, I’ve had the chance in the last few weeks to do some projects that have taken me out of my typical world of weddings and portraits and into something a little more… dusty.

You may or may not know that before I was a photographer I was actually an architect. My husband and I met in architecture school way back when and I’m proud to say that he is still doing the architecture thing, and doing a darn good job of it as well! Ben works at the awesome west LA firm of Marmol Radziner and Associates in their Prefab department. For those of you not “in the know” prefab homes are one of the hippest trends in sustainable architecture right now. The homes are completely constructed in modules in the office’s factory in Vernon, and then shipped to the construction site to be assembled by crane. If you can’t really picture it just hold tight… the visuals are coming

This week Marmol Radziner installed its first Los Angeles prefab house in Venice and man oh man did we draw a crowd! I think that the neighbors were a little overwhelmed to see the site go from an empty lot one day to a complete home in only two days. There were crowds of onlookers, a chopper taking aerial photos, and even news crews. I was asked to come along to document the process and I thought I’d share some of my favorite shots from the day with a little play by play action so you can get an idea of how the whole thing works.

The modules are shipped from the factory on flat bed trucks, fully finished (down to the drywall, tile, plumbing fixtures, and even the refrigerator!) and shrink-wrapped in plastic.

Once they reach the site a team of workers unwrap the modules one at a time and prepare to hook them up to the waiting crane. Each module is attached to the crane by only four “pick points” which are located one at each corner of the module.

After the module is hooked up and gets the all clear it’s time for the exciting part…. lifting the building up into the air to set it in place

In this case because the site was a residential neighborhood with not a lot of extra space… the modules were actually lifted up and over the neighbor’s house to be set in place. Talk about exciting!

Once in place the modules are set down and the crew on the ground nudges them into position. After a bit of fine tuning it’s on to the next piece.

Two days (one for the first floor, one for the second) and 14 modules later and the once empty lot is now home to a shiny prefabricated house. It’s an amazing process and even after seeing it with my own eyes it’s a little hard to believe! In just about one month the house will be move in ready. All that is left to do is to “button up” the seams between the modules and install the landscaping. Check out the house at around 3pm on day 2 of construction… amazing!

If you want any more info on prefabricated homes like this one, please check out Marmol Radziner Prefab. They make a beautiful product right here in LA, doesn’t get much better than that!